Google dot com says the traditional gift for a four year anniversary is fruit & flowers?? How festive! In honor of our fourth year on the world wide web, we are requesting bouquets and fruit baskets or cash donations to the whip-a-rain-fund 😌 Oooooorrr we guess...alternatively...we can put on a big, month-long celebration featuring a warm-and-fuzzy event, scavenger hunt, a raffle drawing, and a freakin' prize wheel??! See the September Announcements for more information, and don't forget to check out the September Patrols too!
The Apostles is a warrior cats roleplay based in northern Wisconsin. On Lake Superior, the wild cats have made the Apostle Islands their home. It is on these islands - Rocky Island and South Twin Island - that the clan and tribe cats have lived in a peace and harmony that ebbs and flows with the tide.
But as the tides turn, so does the truce that binds them to one another; and as the water raises, a darkness follows, an evil that will end in bloodshed and violence.
Under the dark cape of Silverpelt, glittering joyously with flecks of far-flung stars, a cream and white tabby glided on paws which hardly seemed to touch the ground.
The moon was round and glowed a soft yellow, like the warmest of candlelight which dressed the young cat in a finer light, like handspun gold and shimmering gossamer. Like she had been enchanted by the stars to arrive to the border in the best hues she could be and by the time the sky had grown it’s darkest, she would whisk herself back home, head full of parting sorrows and the great joy of having reconvened. It was a dizzying experience but it was one that she cherished so greatly and tonight would be even more special. After all, Daffodilshimmer knew she would not be able to come back to visit until after she had kitted and even then for a long while. It would be very, very long that she would have to go without being able to do this- these moonlit escapades to see Chicorypelt at the border. It had not grown any less risky to do so, with the war steadily growing more and more real by the day. But this was cast out of her mind with each pawstep that trailed through the redwoods until they were coming in fewer clusters and the scraggly, thin birch trunks started to become visible up ahead.
Nothing is more perfect than these nights, Daffodilshimmer thought very preciously. Each time they met it had never been a night short of charm. The sky was always swathed with stars that winked down at them in support and the night birds never swooped down at them and StarClan never sent rain to chill them and end their nights early. Daffodilshimmer was sure that these were all signs of their approval, even if delusion was clouding this judgment heavily. It would be hard to think this way still when the yowls of war would soon cut through the quiet of her “perfect” nights and their scents clinging to the ferns and winds would put an end to their meetings until there was less attention paid to the border.
But these thoughts were not at the forefront of her mind as she arrived at their spot, a most winsome smile painting her delicate face. “Chicorypelt!” She called out softly into the dark. “My love, I am here!”
Nights like these felt more normal than anything he experienced during the day. They felt normal and real and like they mattered. They made him feel like he mattered, and perhaps, that was the greatest thing about them. These nights, where the moon was bright and the world shrouded in star-glittering darkness, these nights were where Chicorypelt felt most at home. The night was his cloak, and, despite the nearness of leaffall, the night kept him warm always.
He had arrived slightly earlier in the night when the sky's rim was still purple with the setting sun. The stars shone brightly upon his pelt, perhaps, even moreso than the yellowed moon, leaving him glowing snow in their midst. He remembered her in the snow, the delicate creams of her furs revealed more brightly than when against the forest floor. He recalled her in almost every season, and revelled that he might have known her for so long. Has it truly been so long that she has resided in my heart? He wondered as he settled himself against the dark-wooded tree that rested along the border - a place where those coming from LichenClan territory might not spot him right away while still being in view of Daffodilshimmer should she appear from the gloom hovering under the redwood branches.
And there - as though his thoughts summoned her from the dark - she appeared, all the more spectacular in her beauty than Chicorypelt ever could have remembered within his mind alone. He blinked and stared for a heartbeat, tumbling head over heels once again before he shot to his feet and raced to embrace her.
"Daffodilshimmer!" He fell right against her pelt, his crown pressing warmly to her neck. His feet took him around her body, running his side against hers, his tail wrapping around her chin possessively. Once, he had been afraid of such physical displays of affection. But now, he did not care. If this was going to be the time in which he could be at peace and share a moment with his lover, he would do all that he could with each heartbeat.
"How is everything, how are you?" He chirped as he moved to her side, cheek against hers. "Did I ever tell you I met Asterstorm at the gathering? Yes, I - well, I think I was pretty slick, I'm sure she has no idea who I am or how I know you," He chuffed a laugh through his nose. "I hope everyone is well back home - are your cousins doing well? I bet they're nearly apprentices by now!" He moved his tail to entwine with hers.
The tom's mouth moved even faster than his heart, always an excitable conversationalist. Only after several questions had escaped from his lips did he slow enough to think properly. "I'm so glad to see you again, my love, I'm sorry for getting ahead of myself once again..."
[attr="class","sbox"]And then there he was, him with his evergreen, ever-beaming eyes of a green so bright they made all the gold in the world seem dull in comparison. Of snow-flecked furs and generous airs of kindness and warmth. Chicorypelt slid out of the darkness and into the light of the moon, gentle in it’s covering of him in it’s light and turning him the most delicate, hand-plucked hues of buttercups and daffodils. He emerged, swiftly, from the underbrush and his face was a most delightful sight to lay upon as he could not move fast enough to be at her side. Her own face glimmered into a reflection of his, Daffodilshimmer utterly entranced as always by him. Like each time their paths met in the same place, time slowed to a honey’s drizzling pace and grew twice as sweet. Like in these stolen, love-steeped, tender-soaked moments, they were beholden to each other and nobody else. Daffodilshimmer felt with each fresh glance at him it was like falling in love with him all over again, but in the same kind of way as when the rains came down in thick sheets which drenched every part of the forest floor and left the redwood’s limp and soaked to the bark. A torrential downpour, an unrelenting cascade. A rushing, overwhelming feeling of love so powerful and bright. To stand here, under the night so starry and dazzling, was to be alive and young and oh, so very much in love.
He ran to her and she to him and then they were clasped in an utmost thoughtful embrace. It was soft and sweet, her head pressed to his. She had to laugh. Once there had been a time in which she would never had dreamt of such closeness and affection-laden moments. Now, she was about to confess something so grand and wonderful to him. Chicorypelt’s tail swooped under her chin and she leant into the touch, lifting her head to peek up at him so ardently. She had eyes only for him, savoring so slowly each look he pressed her with and each word he whispered for her alone to hear. My lover, I want to go where you go forever. I wish for the day in which we will never have to part. And these sappy thoughts caught in her throat and she grew so misty-eyed. “My love, I have missed you so dearly,” She breathed into his great furs. “I dream of you each night. Your eyes, your smile, your touch…” She purred, most torridly now. A joke for herself alone, but soon enough he would delight in it too. Or so she hoped. It had not occurred to Daffodilshimmer any other possibility. Surely he will be excited, there is nothing more exciting than this, kits are the tangible and physical manifestations of your love! The sealing of our fate.
In his most typical fashion, he began to pepper her with questions and her heart soared and lurched to remember how he had done just that at the border all those moons ago. Back when he had first caught her eye, just a talkative apprentice who knew too much. But her sister’s name made her ears prick tentatively. “Asterstorm ? You met her at the Gathering ?” Daffodilshimmer blinked in disbelief. “What did you say to her ? And her to you ?” She thought of her sister’s face, scrunched up at an excitable LichenClanner getting close to her. “I hope she wasn’t rude to you,” She fretted, moving to nuzzle against his cheek. “You must tell me if she was, I’ll have a talk with her!” Her voice grew shrill, her attempt at serious. “My cousins are well, I hope yours are too. Soon enough they’ll be off, having kits of their own I bet…” And now her gaze dropped most bashfully. “Speaking of which…”
Daffodilshimmer wrapped her tail into his, gaze growing shyer and shyer by the minute whilst her face grew lavender. “I have something to share with you, my love. It’s a bit early but Orchidshade told me and I just could not bear to sit on it until our next meeting, the anticipation would kill me!” She laughed most girlishly, “Chicoryypelt, I love you very dearly,” Now she paused. Sudden anxiety fluttering in her chest, heart flapping against the bars of it’s birdcage. What if he is disgusted ? If this was never something he wanted ? They had never discussed a future together, this much was true. But she had hoped in yearning silence that it had been a given. Just the next natural thing, what would feel right. Ever since finding out, she had thought of this moment near endlessly. Just like she done before with the grand and splendid confessions of love and devotion. But of course, this was different. Immensely different. I just thought after all that pining and dreaming that I would be ready for this moment, she thought quietly to herself. That this would come easily. She had imagined this moment with herself carrying confidence. Maturity even.
But now, at the precipice of that moment, she felt a great deal of worry. If Chicorypelt were to rip himself out of their embrace and his face turn knotted with disgust and his tongue heavy with nasty words, the cream tabby knew she would never recover. To even think it and imagine such a scene unfolding felt devastating and she felt a tremor dance over her whole form. “When she told me, I was so…excited even if it was very, very unexpected and the timing isn’t great…” Daffodilshimmer breathed lightly into the sliver of space between them. It was brimming with warmth and it gave her the courage to push through and whisper out the news at last. “Chicorypelt, you are to be a father.” And then she was pulling back, eyes wide and shiny and fearful. The moon catching them and making them look even more glittery as she waited, breath held, for what he may say.
"No, she wasn't rude at all," He chirped with a laugh. "She was sweet - hesitant, but sweet - and spoke very fondly of you as well. But you know how all gatherings are these moons..." He rolled his eyes with a sigh, a smile quickly returning as though no war had ever kept him and his lover apart. After all, she was here and now, and that was all that seemed to matter.
"My cousins are well too," He agreed with a nod, though she quickly ferreted away the conversation, much to the young warrior's surprise. Rarely did Daffodilshimmer lead the conversation point by point, her softness an overwhelming cloud that left the tom giddy and exceptionally wordy. Often, he would ramble about this or that, and she would listen and chirp words of love in response. So, when she spoke with warm cheeks, eyes upon his face radiating with the light of the moon, he was quiet and listened carefully. His ears trained forward, pricked and attentive, his tail stilled, though wrapped around hers it remained.
The words fell upon him in great waves as powerful as any gust upon the cliffs or as any incoming tide. He was swallowed in them, an inescapable void. His exterior was frozen as he swam desperately in the turmoil of his mind, trying to grasp onto something as the words echoed over and over. The realization finally hit - an understanding he had been searching for after several heartbeats of silence between him and his lover.
"A...father..."
Fireworks. Exploding plumes of dandelion seeds in a gale. A bolt of lightning as sharp as a hawk's talon. Summer's sweltering heat.
"I-" His gaze turned to Daffodilshimmer's finally after staring forward emptily for such a long while. His eyes were as round as the moon above. "I can't believe it, Daffodilshimmer, we, I mean you - you're pregnant?!"
His face split into a wide smile, his shoulders rolling back as he moved forward to press his forehead to her neck. He moved to swipe his cheek against hers, drawing his body incredibly close until there was no space between the pair of lovers. He felt incredibly warm all over, and whether it was her or the intensity of his own whirling emotions, he wasn't sure. "Congratulations! I love you, Daffodilshimmer, and I love all of them already," He purred. His tongue swiped across her in a fit of grooming, his heart swelling with this overwhelming excitement and...If I don't think about how scared I am, am I even scared? He didn't address such feelings - no, that's not what Daffodilshimmer needed. He buried it deep, letting his trills of joy known as he drew her into his form, pulling her close and holding her tenderly.
"It doesn't matter the timing, I am glad that I can have you by my side at all and this -" He had always wondered why warriors would have kits during times of war. Do they feel like this too? The realization began to knock at his den's door, but he continued to ignore it. "This is nothing short of a gift from StarClan themselves. I am so glad that you told me."
His purrs echoed in the silence of the redwood graveyard. They stood upon the bones of their waring ancestors, rejoicing their communion with boisterous mews.
[attr="class","sbox"]Time lurched into a sweet slow waltz, Chicorypelt’s words were like blooms, slow and careful and hesitant at first and then suddenly and beautifully and all at once they were bursting with life and excitement and joy. And this dawning of light and love, she flourished under his touch and it was like all was right in the world. Like there was no war, no sickness, no pain. Just love so tender and pure and devotion which put the stars twinkling overhead to shame. It was like, under this blanketed sky of darkness, the stars dimmed themselves in shame for what they were witnesses to was something far grander and larger and more sacred than anything they stood for in reality nor fiction. Wrapped in his embrace, their gazes burning into each other’s. The first, delicate fall of snow. A sun shower in spring. Gentle, keening cries of a mourning dove. Powerful but inexplicably so. Stronger than it appeared. Something which shook them so passionately it felt, if ever briefly, that they had reinvented love. Like none had ever loved like this before them and none would love like them again. Ambers met emeralds and they were both twinkling and glittering and she nodded wordlessly.
“Yes, my love. A father.” Now those pearls fell from her eyes in soft cascades, staining the furs of cheeks a darker color. “Isn’t it so exciting ? I cannot wait for them to arrive. I hope that at least one of them looks like you or at the very least bears your mind, dear.” She loved Chicorypelt from head to toe and for even one of her children to look like him would bring her great pleasure. Like a secret only she was privy to. Her own coat had dollops of soft white and if they had his eyes, she could claim them to be those of her late brother’s.
“I love you too.” She replied, voice thick with emotion. “I love you more than the moon, than the stars, than the whole sky.” He held her so tenderly, so gently and kindly. She all but melted into his touch and the chirping and trilling noises he made. Everything was falling into place so perfectly and nothing could disrupt such a serenity which had settled down upon them. “May StarClan bless them, they are going to be perfect.” And she felt this deeply, believed it with her whole heart, even as they did stand in the graveyard, upon the graves of those who had fought and died in the name of the war which surged on between their two clans, utterly regardless for how pure nor deep their love was.
His purrs rumbled, unfettered, throughout his form and into her soft fur. It was a gentle sort of sound, the kind held in the paws of another. The sort that stilled the gaze and quieted the heart of all that might come across. He found joy in his own sounds, and even moreso in the music of her, his creamy daydream purring just so.
I can't disappoint her... He could hardly imagine trying to be in her footsteps - to tell another of such news as this. If he had been in her place, he would have wanted enthusiasm and joy, right? So that's what he was. It was easy enough to be content and filled with peace when she was around, no matter the gravity that was slowly beginning to tether his excitement to something less reckless and wild.
A sigh of contentment left his jaws. "Have you been considering any names? I like..." He paused, soft hums leaving him to make room for the ideas to surface. "I like... Bumblekit," He purred with a giggle. "It is a sweet little name, and I'm sure any kit raised by you will be nothing but kind. It's a happy sort of name, I like that." He went on, "Sweetkit, or Bunnykit," He pressed his nose, his muzzle into her cheek. "Marigoldkit would be very cute, or Daisykit..." He pulled back, grinning, relaxing into her flank.
"But, Daffodilshimmer, I want you to know..." His gaze softened somewhat, a sincerity to his features. "I want to be there for them - and for you. I'd do anything for you. But I need to finish this first - the best way to protect you is to finish this war once and for all. But after that..." He blinked, feeling his breath catching in his throat with each inhale. "Once it is over... I would like the meet them..."
[attr="class","sbox"]The sound of both of their purring was a joyous, harmonious noise. His voice met hers and they melted into unison and it was sweet enough to rival even the most melodic meadowlark’s humming. A song so perfect that when Daffodilshimmer broke it to speak again, her heart ached only seconds after its absence. “StarClan watches over us,” She said again, sniffling lightly. “They always have, I just know it.” And it made easy to find faith when you were so blind to the rest of the world. The world which others found to be rich with suffering and death and horror. In many ways, the blinding light of blessing and love made the young she-cat deeply selfish. No better than those of her clan who were rife with prejudice and genuine hate in their hearts. But faith was a currency which could be traded for hope and hope was what she clung to desperately in these times, so the exchange was made, however unknowingly.
Shyly, Daffodilshimmer tucked her chin to her chest, peering up at him through her lashes. “I have considered some…” She started bashfully. What a sentiment, to be here in this moment. She wanted to capture this moment exactly like a flower in ice. Something so perfect and tender needed to be preserved forever from the outside world. Each of his suggestions sent dragonflies and butterflies and ladybugs and a whole parade of delicate lacewings dancing in her stomach. She pressed her nose back to his cheek fondly. A dreamy sigh escaped her giggling, grinning face. Everything was perfect and untouchable and glittering. “Of course you’ll get to meet them.” Like a comet’s tail or an aurora borealis, it was something she never wanted to forget, wanted to commit to perfect memory.
And she did exactly that for the rest of the night, quickly finding herself lost again in blankets of snow-white fur.
